Once all the drawings were collected up, the instructor (Scott Kuntz) took a sheet of the Bienfang Parchment 100, taped it liberally over each of the drawings, and preceded to redraw them with more focus on placement of form and shape. He lectured about Petruvius's Golden Mean, identifying natural places where the human eye has a tendency to travel. He spoke more about Eye Travel and Visual Pathways and how to control your viewer's course through your design.
The instructor then asked us to redraw our MidQuarter pieces after seeing some new ways in how to approach the work. He suggested we also get some reference materials for the objects within our designs. "Don't just imagine what it should look like." Go out and actually look at it, or find some pictures of the elements you need for your design.
Petruvius's Golden Mean
While there are several methods put forth on how to derive the exact
point indicated by Petruvius's Golden Mean, simply breaking the drawing
space into thirds vertically and horizontally quickly identifies these
important locations.
So what's so important about knowing where our eye naturally tends to focus? Well, if we use this information and place our key images/actions at these locations we are doubly supporting the message of our design and facilitating the viewer's eye travel to the location we desire.
Here are some comments from a photographer on the "Golden
Rule" (her term for it).
The Golden mean is applicable in all fields of visual communication,
not just graphic design.